Users don’t all want to legalise marijuana in Seattle – they must be mad

MARIJUANA is not legal. Still. Face of the Day features Matt Galanti, 17, of Bothell, Washington, smoking marijuana from a glass bong at the opening day of the pro-marijuana rally Seattle Hempfest. To his side are Zach Casselman, 18, of Bothell, and Clay Graeber, 20. The three-day event comes as citizens in Washington state prepare to vote on an initiative that would legalize and tax the sale of up to an ounce of cannabis at state-licensed stores.

“Here’s what we know: Prohibition has not worked,” told supporters who lazed in the grass a cloud of cannabis haze. It’s fueled criminal violence. Right now in this city, people are murdering each other over pot…. It’s time to stop. It’s time to tax it, regulate it, legalize it.”

So. Will every stoner and medical marijuana user vote for Initiative 502? There will be rules:

The proposed law limits possession of smokable marijuana to one ounce. It has a blood-THC standard for driving a car, and no such standard exists now. It has heavy taxes. It doesn’t allow private growing of marijuana plants except by medical patients.

Its most controversial feature — at least among marijuana proponents — is that it would set up a new driving standard based on a definable blood limit for marijuana. This is a stricter regulation than the current impaired-driving laws and one that many medical marijuana patients believe they would be unable to meet after regular medicinal doses.

They fear they might be subject to arrest for driving even days after their last marijuana dose.

The smart move surely has to be vote for the change and see how it works in practice.